xxxIndyxxx: Doe anybody know when you finally show up in searches and stuff like that? How I see it at this point Youtube is rather unfair towards new channels, or am I missing something?
Also: my wife seems to have some unknown skill in playing Super Meat Boy. She did surprisingly well in the new Dani tries it video (but then again I didn't think see was going to be able to beat the first Doom level on Ultra Violence either):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBTX9Sc9IxU Yeah, you show up in searches and recommended videos etc. when your videos draw people into youtube on their own and then Youtube's algorithms take notice of that and give you a higher priority. The number of subscribers doesn't matter so much directly as many people think. What matters according to experts and Youtube itself is:
- Your videos are interesting to people and cause them to come back again and again to want to watch them.
- When people watch your videos, the longer they watch your videos in terms of engagement time, the better you are ranked. Make a 10 minute video that people watch 30 seconds of and close it, that doesn't help you. Make a 30 minute video that people mostly watch the whole thing -> that helps a lot.
- They care about engagement with the Youtube platform, so if people start their video session and watch your videos first, then go on to watch either more of your videos, or other people's videos - that benefits you because you were the factor that brought them into the Youtube platform. They favour content that draws people too Youtube and keeps them on Youtube, whether watching your videos or someone else's after watching yours.
Here are some general tips I've picked up over the years with regards to making decent videos both in general, and specifically for youtube:
- They seem to give a higher score to videos that are at least 10 minutes long or more, and another bump somewhere around 30 minutes, and again at a longer point although I forget the timing.
- Including a call to action at the end of your videos is shown to increase engagement and thus improve your ranking.
- Edit your videos to remove unnecessary dead air, loud noises, any other things that might possibly annoy or irritate people.
- Edit your audio so that the volume level is at the proper volume and loud enough to hear but not blowing someone's head off with distortion. If you use music, make sure the music is not overpowering, and if there is background music, it should be very quiet and subtle and not making it difficult to hear or understand any talking going on.
- Do not use the microphone built into your webcam, camcorder, digital camera, etc. - the are all terrible pieces of crap. Use a separate microphone, even if it is just a cheap headphone mic, lapel mic, or something better. Just about any mic is better than a camera mic.
- In general - disable any automatic gain control feature that might be enabled on the microphone. This is often labelled "AGC", and while it is useful for some things, it often sounds unprofessional more often than not in Youtube videos. Instead, set a nice stable mic volume and if it varies in the recording, adjust the levels as needed during audio editing phase to give a nice smooth volume level.
- If you are outdoors or in other environments where there is wind, use a wind baffle over the microphone, or in the studio use a pop filter, even if it is a homemade one out of nylons or something. Audio pops and noises irritate people and send them for the [X] button.
- Do not try to play games to trick Youtube into ranking you hire, such as spamming for people to subscribe to you, doing sub4sub or other "short cuts to success". Google knows all the tricks and will punish people for trying to scam the system.
- Very important - decide upon a schedule for when you will post new videos, and post at least 1 or 2 new videos a week. Always post them on the same day at the same time. This consistency is important and has been shown over and over again on Youtube to drive up the number of views and viewing time, subscribers, etc.
- Don't be afraid to edit out things that are boring, fluff, droning on, etc. Avoid "uh", "um" and other nonsense fluff words whenever possible.
- Optionally write an outline on paper prior to recording that covers all of the points you want to make in your video. You don't need to read it like a script (but you could write a script if you want to also), but it can act as a guideline and keep focus on what the video is about.
- If the video is about a particular topic, avoid wandering off topic.
- Nobody wants to see or hear someone's dog/cat/horse/baby crying etc unrelated to the video making an unexpected appearance, barking, etc. nor car horns, smoke detectors going off, or other unexpected and unwanted noises that are jarring or make people lose focus of the content they're watching. If any such things happen, re-shoot that part of the video after putting the dog in a trunk in the garage <grin> etc.
These are just some guidelines recommended by experts out there for improving the quality of videos, but there are many many more, and they're just guidelines, not the absolute law. There are videos out there that are highly successful that may break many of these suggestions, but the idea of the guidelines as they say is that each thing you can do that can potentially boost engagement and interest, cut down on annoyances etc. will improve viewer counts so it is a good idea to maximize everything by making every effort.
Also, think about what you liked or hated about a particular person's video when you watched it. Spend an hour watching a whole bunch of random videos from random people of varying quality. Write down what you thought was good or bad about them, the audio quality, the lighting quality, the volume, the camera movement, the dialogue, humour or lack thereof, etc. What videos do you find that are the most powerful that make you want to come and watch more of that person's videos? Why do you like them?
Try to find what works for others and create your own formula from the various advice which matches what you're trying to accomplish.
There are no solid rules though, in the end it's up to you, and there are videos with millions of hits that probably break every guideline on this list too. :P
Hope this helps.
